Sean Thomas is a novelist, journalist and travel writer. He also publishes thrillers under the name Tom Knox. He is currently writing a memoir of his extremely misspent youth, and similarly misspent adulthood, and tweets under the name @thomasknox.

The Muslim hate preacher and the T-shirt salesman: a bizarre study in double standards

Compare and contrast. A few days ago, one of Britain’s best-loved hate preachers, Anjem Choudary, a man so widely admired that we pay him £25,0000 a year in benefits so he can live in this country, was filmed saying murdered Woolwich soldier Lee Rigby will "burn in hellfire" as a non-Muslim.

Choudary then added, in typically disarming manner, that Adebolajo and Adebowale, the two men charged with Drummer Rigby’s murder, were doing "what they believed to be Islamically correct", while noting that Michael Adobelajo was "a very nice man".

Quite properly, the police refused to step in. After all, we have the right to free speech in this country, and Choudary said nothing illegal.

Quizzed on the matter, assistant police commissioner Cressida Dick told MPs: "In the case of somebody like Mr Choudary we are constantly assessing whether any of his proclamations are breaking the criminal law." Cressida Dick further explained to MPs that the complexity of legislation surrounding the incitement of religious and racial hatred made it difficult to build a case against Choudary.

Now let’s cross the country to Newport, south Wales.

At roughly the same time that Choudary was making his statement, T-shirt seller Matthew Taylor was printing, and displaying, a T-shirt inscribed with the words: "Obey our laws, respect our beliefs, or get out of our country". As Taylor told reporters, the brutal killing of Drummer Rigby had spurred him into making the shirt, because the shocking attack had "left him upset". Taylor added: "If you don't like the way a country is run, and don't like our beliefs, then go somewhere else, don't go killing people."

Understandably, police took a much dimmer view of Taylor’s inflammatory request that, if you are living in Britain, "don’t go killing people". Following a complaint from the public about the T-shirt, Taylor was cautioned by the cops and threatened with arrest unless he removed the offensive garment with its rabble-rousing slogan. A spokesman for Gwent police confirmed the incident, and said: "We had a call from a member of the public. We visited the shop and asked him to remove the T shirt, as it could be seen to be inciting racial hatred."

So there you have it, that’s the law on incitement to racial hatred in a nutshell; it’s very easy to understand. Just remember that if you are in London, and you are a known Islamist living on benefits, you cannot be arrested for inciting racial hatred when you say the poor, murdered Woolwich soldier will burn in hell. However, if you are in Wales, and you are a hard-working T-shirt seller, you can be arrested for inciting racial hatred – if you ask people to obey our laws, and stop killing soldiers in Woolwich.